Kewaunee seen as only purely economic nuclear victim for now – nuclear critics more skeptical of economic future

Online PR News – 20-November-2012 – Atlanta, GA – Chris Vlahpolus, a partner at ScottMadden, Inc., recently spoke with Wayne Barber, a chief analyst at Power Generation, about the Kewaunee reactor in Wisconsin. The following transcript has been edited for length. To access the full article, please visit: http://generationhub.com/2012/11/12/kewaunee-seen-as-only-purely-economic-nuclear-vict. Membership is required to access the full article. To register, please click: http://generationhub.com/register.php.

Less than a month after news of the first U.S. nuclear plant shutdown since 1998, industry observers seem inclined to view the Kewaunee reactor in Wisconsin as a market victim that’s unlikely to set a trend. While the future of a few other plants remains uncertain due to protracted and unexpected outages, Dominion (NYSE: D) has said its decision to close the 500-MW pressurized water reactor was purely economic.

Kewaunee is not a troubled plant, officials say. But for a nuclear plant, it is very small, and it is also a single-unit reactor far from Dominion’s nuclear fleet in the East. Kewaunee was also losing some of its long-term customer base.

Mr. Vlahoplus said, “Small (500-MW) single-unit plants start with a competitive cost disadvantage in comparison to larger dual-unit nuclear plants which are often more than 2,000 MW. In this environment of abundant natural gas, low power prices, and weak demand, a small, single-unit merchant plant with an expiring PPA forced to compete in a market without capacity payments (except for the voluntary market) would certainly be scrutinized closely as part of a portfolio review,” Mr. Vlahoplus went on to say.

On October 22, Dominion announced it would shut down the plant in 2013 and begin the decommissioning process. Dominion purchased the plant in 2005 from Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) and Alliant’s Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL). Dominion had once hoped to control a number of nuclear units in the Midwest.

During its second-quarter earnings call in August, Dominion officials said they were at the mid-point of their Kewaunee sale effort and hoped to have a buyer by the end of the year. Dominion officials said then that their data room was open and bidders were evaluating the information. The Kewaunee retirement also poses transmission implications. American Transmission Co. (ATC) has decided to reconsider a plan to build the 345-kV Barnhart-Branch River transmission project as a result of the Kewaunee retirement news.

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About Wayne Barber
Wayne Barber, Chief Analyst, Power Generation, has been covering energy and natural resources issues at national publications for more than 20 years. Prior to joining Energy Central he was editor of Generation Markets Week at SNL Financial for nine years. He has also worked as a business journalist at both McGraw-Hill and Financial Times Energy. Wayne also worked as a newspaper reporter for several years. During his career, he has visited nuclear reactors and coal mines as well as coal and natural gas power plants.